SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The political battle over public safety and retail theft is heating up at the California State Capitol, as a ballot initiative to reform Proposition 47 recently qualified for the November election.

Prop. 47 lowered certain theft and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors as part of an effort to reduce mass incarceration in state prisons. 

Those calling for reform of the 2014 law see it as a reason for the rise in retail theft in the state over the last few years.

The Homeless, Drug Addiction, Retail Theft Reduction Act would increase penalties for repeat retail theft offenders and raise drug charges for fentanyl dealers.

Reforming Prop. 47 has divided Democrats in the legislature, but the three most powerful lawmakers in the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate pro Tempore Mike McGuire, all oppose amending Prop 47.

Earlier this year, lawmakers unveiled a package of bills designed to go after retail theft, without changing the voter-approved initiative. At the time, the bill package was a bipartisan solution to address the issue.

To get the retail theft ballot measure off the November ballot, Democrats proposed amendments to the bills that would make them inoperable if the measure is approved by voters.

“I think we should solve our crime problem with carefully considered legislation,” said Rivas at a news conference last week.

On Wednesday, the Assembly Appropriations Committee voted to add the amendments on a party line vote. 

Republicans on the committee emphasized they support the public safety bill package, but could not support the inoperability clause.

“This is an example of an abuse of power, but also this is a demonstration of how afraid the ruling party [is] that this proposition will pass,” said Republican Assemblymember Jim Patterson.

McGeorge School of Law professor Chris Micheli said the Democrats move to put the inoperable clause is “unusual but not unprecedented.”

The bills were also amended to include an urgency clause, which means if they are signed by Gov. Newsom, they would go into effect immediately. However, they would need a two-thirds majority vote from both houses.

“There’s obviously some disagreement among legislative democrats — do they want to take this approach or not,” Micheli said.

A few Democrats, including Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, pulled his support from the retail theft bill package due the added amendments.

“Unfortunately, I can’t support the retail theft package, which contains my Retail Theft Accountability bill, AB 1794, with the poison pill non-operative amendments included,” McCarty noted.

The ballot initiative has received over 900,000 signatures, according to Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig.

“We have every reason to believe that it will pass overwhelmingly because Californians are ready for a change,” Reisig emphasized.

The D.A. was a supporter of the legislature’s public safety bill package, but withdrew his support after the amendments were proposed.

“Inserting this poison pill serves no legal purpose. It’s really just politics because there are people in the building over there in the capitol that would like to kill the initiative or at least confuse the voters, which is not democratic,” Reisig adds.

Though Democratic lawmakers like Senator Nancy Skinner believe the ballot initiative would not sufficiently address the root issues of retail theft.

Her bill, that’s a part of the retail theft bill package, would require online marketplaces to cease doing business with any high-volume third-party seller if they are suspected of selling stolen goods. 

An issue — Skinner pointed out — that is not addressed by the ballot measure.

“The backers of the initiative are trying to sell it as something that is going to address our retail theft problems, and it does not, so I’m making it clear this is what is going to address that retail theft problem.” Skinner said.

Gov. Newsom is one of the main opponents to reforming Prop. 47. His office has been spearheading negotiations to get the measure pulled off the ballot.

Leaked emails obtained by CBS Sacramento, between Newsom’s chief of staff Dana Williamson and the initiative’s leader Greg Totten, show the governor’s office saying they are open to supporting the measure if the backers agree to delay it until 2026.

Totten rejected their offer saying two years from now would be too late and insisted on keeping the ballot initiative in 2024.

Time is running out for the two sides to come to an agreement, as the deadline for initiatives to be removed from the ballot is June 27.